The AAT has asked Migration Alliance to distribute the following message:

AAT registry services have moved to Level 6 at 83 Clarence Street, Sydney

Registry services at our 83 Clarence Street office are now available from Level 6. 

What is the story if you submit an application for merits review to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, and there is some “irregularity” relating to payment of the prescribed fee? 

For example, what is the situation if the application is made on a “paper form” and the part of the form calling for the signature of the credit card holder to authorize payment of the fee is not actually signed? 

What happens if your client is granted a reduction of the application fee on grounds of financial hardship but fails to pay the fee within the time specified by the Tribunal? 

DIBP has warned that sc457 applications including sponsorship, nomination and the visa application must be decision-ready or risk refusal.

Responding to Migration Alliance enquiries, a spokesperson for the Department of Immigration has stated that because the lodgement of incomplete applications has been an ongoing issue for the 457 processing network, the department has ‘adopted the approach of making decisions on incomplete applications at time of initial assessment.’

This means an application could be refused the very next working day, after lodgement.

Migration Alliance enquired with the DIBP upon seeing a report that an applicant who lodged their visa late on Friday was refused the Sponsorship application on midday Monday as the required evidence was not uploaded with the application.

The latest response from the DIBP to the Migration Alliance is contrary to a report which said that “The MIA [who also enquired on the matter]…was advised that [the sponsorship application refusal] may have occurred as new staff were working on SBS applications.”

Article by RMA Michael Jeremy

Partner visas make up approximately 25% of the permanent visas granted in Australia, each year. In the last migration program year this was about 48,000 places.

For Australia, that would be a sizeable inland town.

Migration Alliance members would have likely received an email advertisement from 'Officio' advertising the following:

"If your MARA registration expires soon get LEGENDcom free"

An earlier promotion from Officio first came to the industry's attention last year.  It is our understanding that Officio is buying a limited LEGENDcom subscription on behalf of agents who sign up with them as a sweetener or “loss leader”.  It is our understanding that Officio are backing themselves that migration agents, having signed on, will want to keep using their product into the future.